


Repudiation

by orsumfenix



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Magic, Gen, dick finds it hilarious, wally's in denial
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-23 01:46:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4858481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orsumfenix/pseuds/orsumfenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When one Wallace Rudolph West arrives at Hogwarts, it’s with the full intention of explaining everything away with perfectly logical science. Unfortunately, there's nothing very logical about a school for magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Repudiation

**Author's Note:**

> i think i accidentally shifted tenses at one point in here but i cba fixing it lol

Platform 9 ¾ is most definitely a pocket dimension.

Wally West has little doubt of this.

Both of his parents hover around his shoulders anxiously, gazes darting about as though trying to take it all in. Wally doesn’t blame them. It’s certainly very advanced science, but he’s going to be logical about this and continue to remind them that it’s still science.

Because magic isn’t real.

Of this, Wally West is _certain_.

\--

A kid in Wally’s compartment seems to disagree.

When Wally had staggered on board the Hogwarts Express, desperately trying to juggle all his cases, a kid around his age had stepped in and offered to help. The kid certainly didn’t _look_ very strong, but he then proceeded to pluck half of Wally’s cases out of his arms and dumped them in a compartment without an issue.

He’d then asked Wally to sit with him.

Wally had blinked, but agreed.

The kid – with _shockingly_ blue eyes – introduced himself as Dick Grayson, and shot a small glare at Wally’s snickers. Dick then pointed out the hypocrisy, and Wally had shut up.

Dick Grayson had asked why Wally hadn’t simply asked his parents to levitate his cases on board, and Wally had retorted with the fact that magic isn’t real.

The kid disagrees.

“You’re on a _magic train_ ,” he informs, as though Wally doesn’t know perfectly well where he is. “You’re heading towards a _magic school_ , where you’re going to learn to _do magic_.”

“ _It’s_ advanced science,” Wally proclaims, shifting in his seat and peering out the window. They’re travelling very fast. Certainly faster than a normal train, but still not impossibly so. Still not fast enough to make him believe that it’s due to _magic_. “It may _look_ like magic, but it’s really not.”

Dick Grayson stares.

“Okay, so you’re _definitely_ Muggleborn,” he says slowly, the look on his face one of someone who considers themself to be a genius. Wally just blinks at him, and the kid elaborates. “Someone with non-magical parents.”

“Yeah,” Wally confirms, and sees the boy start to smirk in triumph, so he ploughs on. “But neither am I. Magic, I mean. Or you. Or _anyone_. Because -” 

“Magic isn’t real, yeah,” Dick Grayson finishes, then smirks. “Heh. I wonder how long you’ll keep that up once we get to Hogwarts.”

\--

If Dick Grayson thinks that Wally climbing on board a rickety boat and shivering as they row across a lake is going to make him start believing in magic, then he’s _very_ wrong.

“This is horrible,” he complains. “ _Why_ can’t we just _walk_ there? Or get a carriage like you said everyone else was doing?”

Dick Grayson _smirks_ , the little troll.

“It’s all part of the experience,” he proclaims, though he’s shivering as he says it and his teeth look one step away from chattering. Wally’s given into fate – his teeth already are. “Every round of First-years do this.”

Wally huddles for more warmth; not that it does much good. If they’re so intent on magic being real, can’t they just make the place _warmer_ or something?

Wally takes the fact that they _don’t_ as further proof that magic is, indeed, Not Real.

“Besides,” Dick Grayson carries on, oblivious to Wally’s peril. Or perhaps not so oblivious and just wanting to annoy him. “It’ll be fine once we get into Hogwarts. We’ll be indoors then.”

“Better be,” Wally mutters, in time for the legendary Hogwarts to finally appear in his vision. His mouth falls open before it can help itself, and in the corner of his eye he can make out the annoying kid trying to look smug, but being too similarly awestruck to do so. “Whoa, it’s _huge_!”

“Actually,” a girl sitting next to Wally comments. “It’s bigger on the inside – or at least my parents said so.”

“Like in Doctor Who?” Wally inquires, and stares at the girl as her face turns confused.

“Like in what?”

Wally takes several seconds to just _look_ at her.

“You don’t know what _Doctor Who_ is?”

Apparently she doesn’t.

This is an outrage.

\--

Getting out of that boat is perhaps one of the biggest reliefs Wally’s had in his life, and entering Hogwarts forces him to confront the revelation that, yet again, he has found himself in a pocket dimension.

Traipsing up the stairs with the other First-years is annoying. These people _insist_ magic being real, and then make Wally _walk up the stairs_ when there could be a _lift_ for him to ride in.

This whole thing is just ridiculous.

The ghosts, though, Wally can appreciate. They are rather _good_ holograms, very 3Dish and lifelike – they even interact with the students! If his mum had allowed him to take his phone, he’d be snapping pictures and sending them to her, but alas, apparently no electronics are allowed at Hogwarts. Which is complete _rubbish_.

Clearly, _some_ electronics are allowed, because they’re using electronics to create holograms of ghosts.

Everything is _entirely unfair_.

Walking into the Great Hall is… certainly magnificent. There’s a _lot_ of students here, and Wally almost feels nervous under the heavy gaze of so many stares, but everyone is heading towards a certain area and so he simply tags along with his new classmates.

“Look at the _ceiling_!” someone gasps. Wally does indeed look up, and is confronted with the sky.

Someone else comments that it’s been enchanted to look like the outside, and he hears mutterings of agreement coming from around him, but Wally openly scoffs at the idea. It’s _clearly_ a screen displaying a picture – or perhaps a video? – of the outside world.

He tells Dick Grayson so, and the smaller boy merely laughs.

Well. _Cackles_ would be a more accurate word.

Wally opens his mouth to explain the ghosts to him, too, but then suddenly there’s a singing hat.

This… is not so easily explained by science.

“Still don’t believe in magic?” Dick whispers at Wally’s gobsmacked gaze. Wally shoots him a small glare and tries to think of a retort, but his mind is working in overdrive trying to figure out a _perfectly reasonable explanation_.

Nothing’s coming.

Soon enough, the Hat has stopped singing – thank _god_ – and the professor standing at the front is calling out a bunch of names. Ugh, it’s in _alphabetical order_. Wally’ll have to wait until pretty much last, as per usual.

He learns by watching – apparently, he’s supposed to go to the front, sit down on the stool, _wear the hat_ , and then after some amount of time the hat shouts out a word and he’s supposed to go and sit at the corresponding table.

The words are almost certainly on some kind of random number generator.

When “Grayson, Richard,” is called, Dick shoot Wally an unnerving grin and strolls up to the front, plopping down on the stool and seeing entirely at ease with having a talking hat shoved onto his head.

After a couple of seconds, it shouts, “RAVENCLAW!”

The kid _springs_ _up_ and goes to sit on one of the tables.

Wally glowers at him from a distance.

He kind of tunes out everyone else’s sorting – it’s not like it really matters to him, and he’s _still_ trying to come up with a good explanation for the Hat’s existence. By the time “West, Wally” is called, he’s not yet gotten anything, and isn’t _that_ embarrassing.

He’s just glad that the professor didn’t feel the need to call out “Wallace” – or, god forbid, “ _Wallace Rudolph”_.

Thank the lord for small mercies.

\--

 _“Well, it seems we’ve got a non-believer,”_ a voice mutters into his ear. _“This is sure to be interesting.”_

Wally can at least explain why the voice is so close to him.

“There’s a speaker in the hat,” he announces – in his head, mind you – and the Hat chuckles.

 _“Oh yes, an interesting year to be sure,”_ it comments, sounding… amused, almost. _“Tell me, have you come up with an explanation for my existence yet?”_

“Working on it.”

_“Ah, but of course. Now, for your House, let’s see… you **are** loyal, and you **do** like knowledge, but you can be lazy sometimes… You try to get information to prove your point, but that point is often one you’re sticking with on principle…” _

“There are basic personality types,” Wally says – thinks – slowly. “And you, you scan my brain and pick out which one I am…?”

 _“Still insisting on denial, hmm? Well, with that stubborn attitude, and bull-headedness, not to mention somewhat reckless but brave deeds… better be_ GRYFFINDOR!”

One of the far tables erupts in applause, and Wally takes this as a signal that it is this house which is Gryffindor.

Having the Hat removed is _lovely_. Wally already hates that thing. It contradicts itself and science, and – granted, there’s obviously a good explanation for it…

It’s just a very hard one to find.

\--

One of Wally’s fellow Gryffindor First-years is a boy named Conner Kent.

Upon sitting at his new table with his new housemates at this new school, Wally West had turned to the boy next to him and introduced himself as… well, _Wally West_. The boy next to him had grunted, and simply informed that his name was Conner Kent.

Wally had beamed.

“That’s a really cool name, you know. Kind of like, what’s the word, alliterative! Yeah, alliterative. My name’s alliterative, too. We can be alliterative buddies!”

Conner Kent stares. Wally’s still grinning, but then he frowns and sighs.

“Damn, I’ve said alliterative too much now, it’s gone weird. Alliterative, a _llit_ erat _ive_. Ugh, I don’t like that word anymore.”

Conner Kent continues to stare.

“Sooo,” Wally says, fiddling with his fork. “This speech is kind of boring, huh? I just can’t wait for the food.”

“The food’ll be here in a second,” Conner Kent finally speaks up, the first time he’s spoken since Wally sat down. Probably since _he_ sat down.

Wally _hmms_ at Conner’s statement.

“I wonder what they’ll have. I hope they have loads of calories, I have a really fast metabolism for some reason -” Wally cuts himself off as suddenly the headmaster’s speech is cut off and a bunch of food appears at the table in front of him. “Wha…?”

“Food’s here,” Conner notes, and normally Wally retort with a _“thanks, Captain Obvious, wouldn’t have noticed otherwise,”_ but he’s _kind of_ too busy trying to figure out how this is possible while his heart thumps wildly in his chest.

“It’s… teleportation,” he settles on after a few seconds, feeling his heart begin to calm down as Wally nods firmly. “Yeah, teleportation, that’s it. Wow, I didn’t know that had been invented yet.”

Conner Kent freezes around his food, currently in the middle of being put in his mouth, and puts the fork down. Wally can see a bit of drool on said food. _Ew_.

“It’s magic,” the taller boy says matter-of-factly. Wally just shakes his head.

“Magic isn’t real.”

That statement manages to gather the attention of everyone sitting around him on the table, as they pretty much all turn to face him as one.

“Did you seriously just say what I think you said?” the person opposite Wally asks. The redhead just shrugs.

“Yeah, I guess. Magic isn’t real. _Obviously_.”

Everyone looks at each other, then back at Wally – with the exception of Conner, who just continues to stare at him.

“Okay, I get that you’re probably Muggleborn,” someone says. “But trust me on this, magic _is_ real.”

“Like, look around,” someone else comments. “There are _ghosts_ in this hall.”

“Those are holograms,” Wally states, shoving his chin forward. “And before you say anything about, like, Platform 9 ¾; _that’s_ a pocket dimension.” Everyone continues to stare at him, but Wally just shrugs. “It’s all just advanced science.”

Everybody is still staring.

“Do you really believe that?” Conner Kent asks, and Wally nods.

Conner Kent frowns.

\--

Wally is led up to his new common room up a bunch of mechanically moving stairs, with sensors in the floor to detect when someone is heading in that direction. He’s got to hand it to the people who made this place, they really went all out on trying to make it seem magical. Still, Wally knows that magic isn’t real, and that it _really is_ just all advanced science.

The other kids seem to want his opinion of the stairs’ existence, and he doesn’t hesitate on telling them. Some seem to find it funny, and some exasperating, whereas Conner Kent doesn’t seem to know _how_ to react.

The thing that Wally finds hardest to explain is the portraits. At first he had them pegged for looping videos, but then they started to… _interact_ with the other students, and his brain came up stumped for explanations.

He’ll come up with something overnight, he’s sure.

\--

Breakfast, as it always has been, consists of Wally stuffing his face. His parents have grown used to it by now and are able to ignore it – his new classmates are not.

“That’s disgusting,” someone comments. Wally rolls his eyes.

“For one thing, I eat a lot anyway,” he informs, still chewing as he does so. The person opposite him screws up their nose in distaste. Wally doesn’t mind, he’s used to it, it happened a _lot_ when he went to his old primary school. “For another thing, I barely ate any of the food yesterday. I was too… suspicious, should we say. But, well, _you_ all ate it, and you seem fine sooo…”

He lets himself trail off, digging into his bacon even more.

Everyone stares, looking horrified but like they can’t bring themselves to look away.

Wally wonders if everyone’s going to be staring at him all year long.

\--

Wally’s first class is Double Potions, which he can deal with. It’s very similar to Chemistry, even if the professor is insisting on giving everything a different name.

He partners up with Conner Kent who barely talks to him _once_ throughout the entire time. Wally doesn’t mind, really. He can speak enough for both of them, even if it _does_ seem as though Conner might be getting the _slightest bit_ ticked off by Wally attempting to explain the science behind the entire school.

His next class, Double Charms… Wally’ll admit that he’s not too great at dealing with that.

He has that class with the Ravenclaws, and the kid from the train – Dick Grayson – decides that he’s going to sit next to Wally and bug him all lesson.

This “bugging” primarily seems to be in the form of prodding fun at Wally’s denial of magic.

“But, dude, how can you explain all this stuff without magic?” he asks, smirking as he does so. Little troll.

“I _told you_ , it’s advanced science,” Wally retorts with, glaring at their professor as he attempts to demonstrate how to do some kind of lifting spell or whatever. Wally scowls and sinks down in his seat. At Dick’s raised eyebrow, he carries on. “Okay, so it’s _very_ advanced science, but it’s not like science is impossible! Unlike _magic_.”

Grayson opens his mouth to say something, then pauses and grins.

“Okay.”

Wally shoots him a sidelong suspicious look.

“Okay, _what_?”

“Okay, I’m not gonna fight you about it,” Dick states, twirling his wand – _wands_ , honestly, this whole thing is ridiculous – around his fingers.

“Why not?”

Dick Grayson turns his grin back into a smirk.

“It’ll be kind of interesting to see you try and explain away everything,” he confesses, leaning back in his seat. “I mean, I can’t _wait_ until we get into Flying lessons.”

 Wally pauses.

“Wizards fly?” he asks sceptically, and Dick shrugs, corners of his lips still turned up.

\--

After spending a whole Charms lesson refusing to participate just on the principle of the thing, and being warned that because he’s new to wizarding world he’s being let off easy, but next time he’ll be expected to at least _try_ and lift a feather – as though magic’s even _real_ , and if it was then why would Wally even _need_ to lift a feather? – Wally sits down for lunch, and blinks as Dick Grayson appears beside him.

“I thought you were supposed to sit over there,” Wally comments, pointing his fork in the direction of what he knows to be the Ravenclaw table. Dick Grayson just shrugs.

“I wanted to sit here,” is his only response, as he starts to pile things onto his plate. “Besides, I wanted to know how your conversation with the Charms professor went.”

Wally scowls and stabs his food, perhaps more harshly than he needed to.

“He just told me that he expects me to try next time,” he informs glumly, sulking over his mashed potato. Wally loves mashed potato. Dick Grayson raises an eyebrow, and Wally has to put him in his place. “I just don’t see why I should spend two hours learning to do something that isn’t even real!”

Conner Kent sits down opposite him at that moment, looks at Dick Grayson, and states that he should be sitting at the Ravenclaw table.

Dick Grayson replies that he knows, but he wants to sit here.

Conner Kent just grunts and starts eating. Either he doesn’t know how to respond, or just _reaaally_ doesn’t give a shit.

Wally’s leaning towards the latter.

Dick Grayson – _god_ , Wally’s gotta just start calling him Dick – glances back at Wally and smirks.

“So, you have Transfigurations next, right?”

Why does _Dick_ know what Wally has next? _Wally_ doesn’t even know what Wally next.

Pulling out his already-battered timetable proves Dick right, and Wally shoots him a _look_.

“How did you know that?!” he demands, and Dick just shrugs and cackles – oh _god_ , not the cackle again.

“I know a lot of things,” he states mysteriously, then produces his own timetable. He doesn’t even _look_ at it before announcing his next statement. “I have Herbology.” Dick sighs. “Pity. Wanted to know what you’d say about Transfig.”

Dick Grayson then proceeds to put away his timetable without having even glanced at it once since getting it out. Like, seriously, _what was the point_?

Wally decides to drop it for now.

“What is Transfigurations, anyway?” he inquires, piling more food onto his plate. Dick watches with a weirdly fascinated stare. “If it’s more magicky rubbish,” Wally states as he chews on his new helping of food. “Count me out.”

Dick doesn’t answer the question, just points at the pile of food stacked hazardously on Wally’s plate.

“Are you seriously going to eat all that?”

“Yeah, so?” he retaliates with, mouth still full to the brim with food.

Dick stares, then sighs.

“You’re really weird,” he comments, making Wally snort.

“Coming from _you_ ,” is his mighty retort, and Dick Grayson does that _damn cackle_ again.

“Wally West,” he says once he’s done with his creepy little laugh. “I think that we’re going to be _excellent_ friends.”

\--

Transfigurations begins with their teacher demonstrating that she can shift forms, and Wally’s eyes almost pop out of his head.

He has this lesson with just the other Gryffindors, and so he’s opted to sit with Conner again. The taller boy didn’t seem to have a problem with it – it’s just that he didn’t seem especially _thrilled_ about it, either. When Wally had asked if it was okay he’d just grunted, and the redhead had chosen to take that as a win.

Or at least as a not-lose.

When their teacher, who Wally had previously thought was Not There, demonstrated that they indeed Were There by shifting from an animal into a person in front of Wally’s very eyes, he almost wants to get excited about it. It really is a great sight to see, and he knows that when he was younger and still believed in Father Christmas (before he realised that the science is mathematically impossible) he certainly would have had a happy fit about it.

But, since he’s now eleven and very determined that everything can be explained by Science – Science with a capital S, because it’s a very real thing and magic is not and therefore unworthy of one – Wally simply settles for composing himself and narrowing his eyes at their professor.

She wants them to turn a matchstick into a needle – on some degree, Wally is okay with it, because they’re roughly the same size and weight, but on the other hand, they aren’t made of the same materials _at all_ and it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Conner, whilst attempting to transform his matchstick, notices Wally staring at it in conflict and suggests he try not to think about it too much. Wally shoots a glare at him before settling his eyes back on the matchstick and going back to glaring at that instead.

“Are you even _trying_?” one of Wally’s classmates asks, bring him out of his reverie.

“Huh?”

“I _said_ ,” they continue, rolling their eyes, but somewhat good-naturedly. “Are you _even trying_?” They carry on at Wally’s blank stare. “Your wand’s not even out.”

Wally chooses to ignore the connotations of that sentence.

“I refuse to use my wand on principle,” he announces, and Conner Kent turns to dead on look at him. Wally blinks. Conner’s kind of Very Tall, and it’s kind of Very Unnerving.

“How are you going to do magic without your wand?” he asks, and Wally just rolls his eyes. Yet again. It seems like he’s going to be doing a lot of that this year.

“I’m not going to be doing magic,” he informs impatiently. “Because magic isn’t real.”

“Are you still going on about that?” the same classmate as before butts in, looking surprised but amused. “How can you still think that after having a _Charms_ _lesson_?”

“Everyone was making the feathers fly through _science_. Either there were fans under the table, or _really_ thin strings attached, or _something_ , but it definitely wasn’t magic.”

Wally folds his arms in triumph. Conner Kent is openly staring at him in something akin to disbelief.

Wally sighs. This is going to be a looong year.

\--

After having spent his first Transfigurations lesson much like his Charms one – by refusing to participate on principle, though he admittedly had had slightly more conflict about this one – Wally’s full and ready to call it a day. But, alas, it seems he’s going to have to attend yet _another_ magical lesson, one on… Astronomy.

Huh. Astronomy he can deal with. Unlike Charms or the like, at least it’s a real _thing_.

With the professor addressing that no practical magic will be done during the lesson pretty much straight away, Astronomy soon rises on Wally’s scale of classes, and by midway through the lesson, in which only pure science has been taught, he can safely say that this is his favourite lesson.

They have this lesson with the Slytherins, which most of the Gryffindors seem to dislike – actually there would appear to be a mutual dislike between the two houses, which Wally is just _so_ not in for. Some of housemates mention something about Slytherins being Dark Wizards, which is _ridiculous_. Magic isn’t even _real_ , so _why_ is everyone getting all so worked up about it?

He repeats his inner monologue to Conner, who just shrugs.

“My stepmum was in Slytherin,” he comments, looking slightly awkward. “ _She’s_ not bad.” He pauses, then looks at Wally. “She was Muggleborn, too.”

“And does she believe in magic?” Wally demands, but Conner just shrugs.

“Hey,” a voice somewhere to Wally’s right says. He looks over to see one of the Slytherins grinning at him. “If you’re looking for someone who’s doubtful about magic, you should talk to Roy Harper in Third Year.”

Wally directs his whole attention towards this Slytherin.

“Does he not believe in it either?” he asks, and Wally can’t help but get his hopes up. Maybe he’ll have some cause for sanity after all.

The person shrugs.

“He does believe in it, I think,” they state, though they do sound kind of doubtful. “Just… definitely not as strongly as everyone else, and he still thinks that certain things aren’t possible.”

It’s not as good as he wanted, but Wally grins anyway.

\--

Wally West is determined to find Roy Harper at some point, but as of right now he’s busy thinking about shapeshifting.

He’d just been walking down a corridor, several denial-filled days after his first, when Wally had bumped into a Hufflepuff shapeshifter.

She had dark hair, and then it shifted to a colour similar to Wally’s own right before his eyes, and Wally took several seconds to just stare with his mouth open before realising that his feet were still moving and he was crashing into her.

Oh god, _it’s a shapeshifter._

They both manage not to fall, thank _god_ – _that_ would have been an embarrassing introduction. As it is, Wally barely manages to get out an apology and stumble backwards before staring at her in equal parts fascination and in equal parts offence at her existence.

“Sorry,” she apologises, even though he already has and it was _kinda his fault_ , and so the apology was totally unnecessary, and Wally wants to tell her so but she’s just broken the laws of science and he takes that kind of thing _personally_. “Um… what’s wrong?”

Wally belatedly realises that he’s still staring at her, and that she’s shifting uncomfortably – literal shifting, not shapeshifting, thank the _lord_.

“Nothing,” he blurts out, shifting awkwardly himself, raising a hand and gesturing her up down. “It’s just that you were kind of, um.” He pauses, unsure of what to say. “Your hair, it.” These aren’t even questions. They’re just. Statements. Bad ones.

“Oh, do you mean this?” The girls shifts her hair into a blonde colour in demonstration, making Wally blink, before she shifts it back. “Uh, yeah, I’m a Metamorphmagus, I can change myself into however I want to look.” Wow. She seems embarrassed, almost.

“Oh. That’s kind of cool, but, _kind of_ impossible.”

The girl blinks.

“What?”

“I mean,” Wally starts, and oh man, he’s gonna start rambling. “I guess it _is_ possible, with restrictions – like, your mass would have to be the same, and you’d probably have to remain human because you’d need to be made of the same materials, though I don’t see how you’d pull off the actual _shifting_ … Maybe you’re, I dunno, re-activating dormant genes?” Wally perks up. “That’s probably it!”

“Right,” the girl agrees easily, looking as though she doesn’t know what he’s talking about but doesn’t want to disagree. “I’m Megan, by the way. Megan Morse.”

Wally grins.

“Hey, you’re alliterative, too!” At her bemused stare, he elaborates. “I’m Wally West – nice to meet you – and a guy in my House is called Conner Kent.”

“Oh,” Megan says, and Wally may just be imagining it but he could _swear_ that she’s blushing slightly. “You know Conner Kent.”

“Yeah. Do you?”

“Um, no,” she confesses. “But I’d like to.”

\--

Wally decides that Megan is going to be his friend.

It’s not a difficult decision to come to: she’s nice, she’s pretty, she… disobeys the laws of science, yes, but she doesn’t contradict Wally whenever he comes up with a theory to explain her being a Metamorwhatever.

Dick, who has decided that Wally is going to be _his_ friend, has been practically stalking him since Day One, popping up at random points to cackle about something or mention that Wally “really should start participating in Charms, you know” or else he’ll “give the professor a heart attack from stress”.

Wally’s still not feeling it with Charms, but at least with Transfiguration he’s started having a go. He still finds it stupid, and the whole “wand” thing is still _really_ silly, but at least the idea of the same – or at least _similar_ – masses makes some degree of sense.

 _Some_.

\--

When Wally had first arrived at Hogwarts, he had decided that he was going to write to his parents regularly. This was before he had realised that the only way to do this would be to use what wizards call the “Owl Service”.

The first time owls had swooped into the Great Hall and started dropping letters on people’s plates, Wally West had almost had a heart attack.

“Oh my god,” he had said, staring as a whole range of owl species swooped around without anyone even seeming surprised. “What.”

Dick Grayson, sitting at the wrong table beside Wally and not even getting in trouble for it, had cackled as something dropped in front of him.

“We use owls to communicate with each other,” he’d explained, opening his package then and there and grinning at… whatever it was. Wally had no idea. “They send our letters, packages, presents… It’s pretty much the only way for people to communicate with the students at Hogwarts.”

Wally took a second to mull this over, and then his mouth fell open.

“How am I supposed to write to my parents?” he groaned. “It’s bad enough I wasn’t allowed to bring my phone! I can’t send _owls_ to their house!”

Dick had cackled again, before shooting him a _look_ accompanied by a grin.

“Aren’t you gonna try and explain how _owls_ deliver our mail?” he’d cheekily inquired, crooked smile in place. “It’s not very _scientific_.”

“I know that!” Wally had huffed, glaring at the owls as though they were committing a personal affront. Which they really kind of were. “There’s obviously some sort of controlling device in them and some sort of tracking device in you. Or alternately, they’re like pigeons during the war.”

Conner Kent, sitting opposite them, had shot Wally a confused look.

(Somehow it seems that Conner Kent has become Wally’s friend, too.)

“During the Wizarding War?” he’d asked. Wally had frowned.

“No, during the Second World War.” Conner stared in confusion, and the redhead sighed with exasperation. “Why do none of you people know anything?!”

\--

Wally’s gotten a bit more used to the Owl Service by now – he’d even tried writing to his parents using it once, borrowing Dick’s owl, but they’d politely asked him to please not send any more owls in their reply.

“They said we’ll catch up when I go home for Christmas,” Wally explains to Megan, sitting with them at the Gryffindor table. Neither she nor Dick have gotten into trouble for it yet, to both Wally’s surprise and pleasure. It certainly beats having just Conner for company. “That’ll be fun. I wonder what I’m getting this year…”

“Thinking about Christmas already?” Dick butts in, smirking. “It’s still September.”

“Yeah, well…” Wally trails off as he catches sight of a tall redhead walking over to the Slytherin table, looking shifty and dangerous and _awesome_.

His mouth falls open.

“Who is _that_?”

Dick shoots a look at the guy, and then grins.

“That’s Roy Harper,” he informs, folding his arms. “You know, that guy you wanted to meet?”

“Oh, yeah, him!”

Conner and Megan both turn around to look at the Third-year, who’s now sat down at the Slytherin table. He doesn’t seem to be interacting with his housemates much, if at all. Wally wonders if he doesn’t like them or vice versa, or maybe whether it’s both.

Megan squints to see him.

“Why did you want to talk to him?” she inquires, looking puzzled as she pokes a strawberry through with her fork. Much to Wally’s pleasure, she’s refrained from shifting around him – though whether it’s because he’s annoying her by constantly trying to explain it or she just realises that he considers it a personal front remains to be seen.

Wally opens his mouth to answer, but Conner beats him to it.

“Someone said he has doubts about magic too.”

Megan’s mouth forms an ‘o’, as she glances back over her shoulder to look at Roy Harper again. Conner doesn’t bother looking.

“I still don’t understand why you don’t like magic,” Megan states, biting her lip slightly. “Though, maybe I’m just so comfortable with it because I’ve grown up with it…”

Wally frowns and Dick smirks at him.

“It’s not that I’m not comfortable with it!” Wally defends, although that _is_ that case and all of them know it. “It’s just that I think it isn’t real and it’s stupid for everyone to keep saying that it is!”

Megan looks at him in surprise, and even Conner looks a little awkward about Wally’s outburst.

“Not that I think _you’re_ stupid for thinking that it is!” Wally rushes in, while Dick begins to cackle beside him. “It’s just that magic is _clearly_ just advanced science and this whole thing is just ridiculous -”

“Digging yourself into a hole, dude,” Dick comments, looking three seconds away from cackling all over again.

Wally pauses.

Then, he stands up, and runs.

“Gottagobye!”

\--

When Wally had first learned of Roy Harper’s existence, he’d oddly enough found himself going straight to Dick Grayson and asking the smaller boy.

Dick had done that _fucking cackle_ and simply shrugged.

“I don’t know who he is,” he had confessed. “But I can find out.”

Dick apparently _had_ found out, but he’d told Wally that it probably wasn’t worth talking to him.

“He’s kinda moody, from what I’ve seen,” he commented, ignoring Wally’s pout. “And he’s not flat-out in denial like he apparently _was_ , and like you are now.”

“But stiiiill,” Wally remembers whining, and now he’s surprised that Dick didn’t stop him from running off in Roy’s direction.

Sitting down at the Slytherin table is… interesting. Everyone turns to look at him – though, in Roy’s case, glare – and Wally produces quite possibly the awkwardest smile he’s ever produced. _Ever._

“So apparently you have a thing against magic,” he comments, picking up a spoon and scooping some sugar straight into his mouth. Roy Harper watches with a curious frown, but then he sighs.

“If you’re here to grate me about it, don’t even bother,” he states. Wally just lets his grin become real.

“Nah, I wouldn’t do that,” he assures, placing another spoonful of sugar _straight into his mouth_. “Besides, it’d make me a hypocrite.” Wally shrugs. “I don’t believe in it, either.”

Roy pauses, searching Wally with his eyes.

“Really.”

“Mm _hmm_.” Wally goes in for another spoonful of sugar. “Seriously, the whole thing’s BS. It’s just advanced science, right?”

“I guess so,” Roy returns, then stops. “You’re Muggleborn, too, aren’t you?”

Wally nods.

“When you found out…” Roy halts. He takes a breath. “When they told you, that magic existed, but that they’d kept it a secret from you for all those years… Were you… angry?”

Wally takes a second to tilt his head, considering the question.

“I didn’t really believe it at first,” he admits. “I mean, I still don’t now, but I thought it was like, a massive joke. They gave me a bunch of books to read but I threw them all away.”

Surprisingly, Roy grins.

“Me too.”

The taller redhead looks over to Gryffindor table and nods his head in that direction.

“Those friends of yours?”

Wally follows Roy’s gaze and sees Dick, Conner and Megan indiscreetly staring at them. He waves because hey, it’s nice, and Megan waves happily back – though Conner just frowns and Dick does a cackle that Wally can’t hear. He’s glad. That thing is _creepy_.

“Uh, yeah.” He gestures down the table at the other Slytherins. “Are _those_ yours?”

Roy scowls.

\--

Wally gets up late a couple days later. It’s not as though he’s even been staying up late, he just… sleeps a lot. He always has. Sleeps a lot and eats a lot and talks a lot…

He’s not _terribly_ late – only about fifteen minutes, but it’s enough to make him sprint down the stairs (he’s still convinced that they’re mechanical) and skid to a stop by the Gryffindor table. And blink.

“Hey, where’s Megan?” Wally asks as he sits, glancing around the Hall for her. Dick shrugs.

“Hey guys!” none other than Megan announces as she glides into view, a blonde girl trailing behind her.

“Hey!” Wally greets, starting to heap food onto his plate. Gotta make up for the lost time. “Um, who’s this?”

“Oh, this is my friend from Hufflepuff!” Megan announces as she too takes a seat, although the blonde girl just folds her arms and remains standing. Conner nods and Dick grins, leaning forwards in his seat.

“Can I ask – do you believe in magic?” Dick inquires sweetly, ignoring the glare that Wally shoots him. The girl frowns.

“What kind of a question is that?!” she demands, looking genuinely annoyed. “Of _course_ I believe in magic, we’re _at_ a magic school.”

“It’s just that _he_ doesn’t,” Dick announces, jerking his head at Wally beside him. The girl’s dark eyes find Wally’s green ones and bore into him almost immediately.

“That’s so stupid!” she proclaims, arms unfolding and her fists clenching. “We are literally surrounded by it!”

“We’re _literally surrounded_ by advanced science,” Wally corrects, unashamedly stuffing his face. “It may _look_ like magic, but, really, it’s all fake.”

“Oh, _really_? Then, how do you explain, uh, I dunno, _all of Hogwarts_?!”

“Like I said, it’s all just advanced science. The food appearing: teleportation! The moving stairs: mechanical! There’s a scientific explanation for all of it.”

The girl opens her mouth to argue some more, but Megan wisely decides to interrupt the brewing argument.

“Um, I never did introductions, did I? Well, you already know that I’m Megan, and this is Conner, Richard and Wally. Everyone, this is Artemis.”

‘Artemis’ cocks an eyebrow.

“Is your name seriously _Wally_?”

\--

Wally West Does Not Like Artemis Crock.

He’s fairly certain than Artemis Crock Does Not Like him, either. She finds his refusal of magic annoying, and she’s decided that, seeing as she’s part of their friendship group now, she’s going to use every possible opportunity to ask him a scientific explanation for something.

Case in point, at the current time.

“Wally,” she demands, pointing at a kid who’s received a Howler and is currently blushing. Dick has already explained what a Howler is to Wally, so he’s had _plenty_ of time to come with a scientific reason for it. “How is that possible, may I ask?”

Wally grins.

“There’s a timer, like a bomb or something. When you open the envelope air pressure gets released onto it and it senses what’s just happened, so it activates a speaker.”

Artemis scowls. She’s actually not moody around the others – apparently it’s just Wally she gets annoyed around. Because he doesn’t believe in magic.

Wally, unlike Artemis, doesn’t have a solid reason for disliking her. He just finds her annoying, and that’s that. Although, both of them get equally worked up about it.

Artemis is… certainly not like the other Hufflepuffs Wally’s met. Like Megan, they’re generally kind, and if one of them overhears Wally discrediting magic they usually don’t contradict him. Artemis, on the other hand, isn’t all that kind – or at least, not towards _Wally_ she isn’t – and feels the need to constantly but in on his scientific explanations to try and prove him wrong.

She’s _infuriating_.

And yet she’s still his friend.

\--

Dick has another friend, too. A Ravenclaw by the name of Kaldur. Wally thinks that it’s a strange name, but, really, there’s nothing about this situation that _isn’t_ strange, and so he just kind of rolls with it.

Dick Grayson introduces him to the group one day with the intention of having Kaldur convince Wally West to do his Charms homework, which so far Wally West has refused to do. Wally West thinks that his old homework – his _scientific_ homework – was fine, but he refuses to waste his time outside of lessons researching something which Isn’t Even Real.

Artemis had commented that this is stupid. Wally had retorted that _magic_ is stupid. Dick Grayson had laughed.

But now, with the professor threatening to deduct housepoints if Wally continues to not hand in homework, Dick Grayson has decided to step in.

“Dude,” Wally says to him, narrowing his eyes. “You’re not even _in_ Gryffindor. _Why_ do care so much if we lose points?”

Dick shrugs and grins.

“I don’t want to see your house get even _madder_ at you for it,” he points out, taking a bite of a croissant as he does so. He doesn’t spill any crumbs. Fucking _how_. “They already don’t like you that much because you hate magic.”

“I don’t _hate_ magic,” Wally scoffs, eating some of his own croissant and managing to successfully spill crumbs all over himself. “If I hated it, it’d be like me saying it actually exists. Which it doesn’t.”

“You’re _still_ going on about that?” Artemis chimes in, cocking an eyebrow. “You realise you’ve really overdone it, right?”

Wally huffs, but he can’t think of a good comeback so he doesn’t say anything.

“Anyway,” Dick continues. “I’m sure that Kaldur’ll be able to convince you.”

Wally’s lost track of the previous conversation. He frowns.

“Convince me to do what?”

“I believe Dick wants you to hand in your Charms homework,” a voice chimes in out of _nowhere_ , and Wally jumps. Artemis and Dick both snicker.

“Hi Kaldur!” Megan greets from across Wally, addressing the person Behind Him. Wally doesn’t want to look. Instead, he lets his mouth drop open slightly at Megan.

“You know him too?” he demands, and Megan just smiles, as if it’s the simplest thing in the world. To her, it probably is.

“Of course I do,” she states, blinking. “Am I… not supposed to?”

Wally has no idea how to respond to _that_ , either, so instead of responding he turns around to face this ‘Kaldur’.

Kaldur turns out to be a dark-skinned Ravenclaw with _very_ short blonde hair who gives off a calm kind of vibe. As a perpetually hyper person, that’s something Wally can certainly appreciate.

Though, he can’t really appreciate the fact that Kaldur has apparently been brought over here to convince him to do something. Like, _not cool_.

“Um, hi?”

Kaldur smiles.

“Hello. Are you Wally?”

“Yeah,” Dick jumps in. Wally shoots him a glare. “This is him.”

Kaldur sits down in between them. Wally continues to stare at him. To be honest, the whole table does. Whether it’s because yet another person is sitting at the wrong house or because Kaldur seems kind of flawless from where Wally’s sitting and he’s not really sure how to feel about that.

Conner’s staring too, but Wally doesn’t mind that because Conner’s _allowed_ and he stares at everything anyway.

“Are you here to make Wally do his homework?” he asks Kaldur abruptly. Wally glares at Conner. He wants this topic to remain _untouched_.

Kaldur dips his head.

“I am.” He then turns to Wally himself, who tries to look as uninterested as possible. “Whether you believe in magic or not, you can’t afford to let your scores drop by refusing to participate wholly. You can see it all as hypothetical, if that would help.”

“I don’t need _help_ ,” Wally huffs, and shoots a glare at Artemis’s _smirk_. “And how do _you_ know I don’t believe in magic?”

“Everyone knows,” Dick cuts in, grinning smugly. “You haven’t exactly been private about it.”

Conner nods.

“That’s true.”

“No offense, Wally, but they’re kind of right,” Megan confesses apologetically, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “You’ve been telling practically everyone.”

Wally’s mouth falls open.

“I have not!”

“Yes you have,” Conner comments, somehow managing to ignore Wally’s look of outrage. “Everyone knows about it. Even the people on the Quidditch team know.”

“You have spoken with the Quidditch team?” Kaldur directs his inquiry towards Conner, and the Gryffindor just shrugs.

“They were asking if I would join the team when I’m older. Then they asked me what Wally thinks about Quidditch.”

“What did you tell them?” Dick asks cheekily, grinning and leaning forwards on the bench. Conner shrugs again. Wally thinks that maybe shrugging and grunting are the only things that Conner knows how to do.

“Nothing. I don’t know what Wally thinks about Quidditch.”

“What _do_ you think, huh, Baywatch?” Wally has absolutely no idea why Artemis has been calling him that nickname. She started soon after they met and has been calling him that at least once a day since. It gets on his nerves. “Quidditch isn’t very _scientific_ , right? How can you _possibly_ explain the brooms without magic?”

Everyone looks expectantly at Wally. Wally just blinks.

“What’s Quidditch?”

Chaos ensues.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading - i hope to write the next chapter soon
> 
> pls don't suggest alternate houses :)


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